Meridian of Misery
by Memphisto-the-Dark
Summary: Hiccup discovers a seemingly endless new island. During his exploration of it, he finds three gigantic walls and within them, remnants of a civilisation far more refined than his own. The only problems are the pests.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: hello everyone, and welcome to Meridian of Misery! There's a few things I'd like to point out before starting to avoid confusion;**

**This fanfic is set a year after HTTYD 1, so sometime during the Riders/Defenders of Berk series, and sometime after the Clash of the Titans/Castle Utgard arc but before the Uprising arc (so no one's kidnapped anyone or anything yet) and there are some minor changes (such as Erwin still having his arm and Hiccup has already started going around looking for new islands). Also the HTTYD side is mostly movie-based but there will be some references to the book-verse as well.**

**(EDIT from the 2nd chapter I'll be including a glossary for any old Norse or book-verse references just incase)  
>Ilse of the Skullions- an island from the books filled with dragons called Skullions which have no eyes or ears or even wings but have a large mouth and claws and a heightened sense of smell<strong>

**With all that aside, I hope you enjoy!**

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><p>Flying through the air is a great feeling. Even if you're not the one actually doing it. The feeling of wind going through your hair, the plunge your stomach takes when you dive or look down. The adrenaline running through your veins and the feeling that you can do anything and go anywhere...the feeling of freedom.<p>

But the feelling isn't enough for some people.

Those who desire and feel the need to be truly free will not let anything stop them from acheiving their goal.

Not even a missing limb or two.

* * *

><p>"C'mon bud, let's see how far we can go today!"<p>

The Night Fury hopped about excitedly, eyes wide. His rider chuckled and placed a hand on his scaled head as the two left the house. The sky was painted the colours of early dawn, with violet clouds draped over the now-dim stars. He had wanted to go out early that day, so as not to lose daylight and also in the hopes of breaking his record for distance travelled away from his island home in a single day. He also wanted to add to the map of the world he had taken to create-not that he was shocked that the world was much larger than what they had initially thought (for him and Astrid, atleast), it felt more like a pleasant surprise to him.

He shut the door as quietly as he could and used Toothless for support as he descended the steps of his porch. Though he had had his prosthetic leg for almost a year now, it still felt quite alien to him and sometimes gave him grief. Walking up and down stairs was a pain and he was going to have to get used to it. He had faith his father would be able to figure out that he was going to be out for the day and was just about to hop onto his saddle when he heard a voice.

"Going somewhere, Hiccup?"

The boy in question winced, his left leg still hovering awkwardly in the air as though he were performing some innocent leg stretches. He slowly turned his head and saw none other than Astrid standing, arms crossed and leaning against a tree with a small scowl on her face.

"Erm." He began lamely but the girl had already begun walking towards them. Toothless glanced up to his rider and nudged him with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Hiccup almost toppled over and he heard the dragon let out a laughing sound. Hiccup would have laughed with him but he had Astrid to answer to.

"Well?" she said in a more demanding tone. Now the two were practically nose to nose.

"I was going to, er, make some-"  
>His voice died in his throat when he felt her eyes boring into him. She looked unimpressed. "Alright, I'm going out for the day. Does that satisfy you, milady?"<br>He let out a grunt when she punched his arm. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Toothless wearing a smirk, as if he was trying to hold in another laugh.

Before he could ask what the assault was for she had turned on her heel and started walking away.

"That was for lying. Make sure you come back in one piece, both of you." She ordered them before heading back into the village. Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at Toothless who was watching Astrid leave. Feeling the boy's eyes on him he looked up with an expectant look. Hiccup shook his head and got onto Toothless' saddle, slipping his legs into place.

"You ready buddy?"

Toothless' mouth stretched into an attempted grin and he nodded once before bounding down the pathway and taking off into the early morning sky like an ebony screeching bullet and pierced the clouds. Astrid watched from infront of her own house and rolled her eyes at the two when the heavy huffing of her awakening Deadly Nadder caught her attention. She looked down at it with a fond look on her face that only those closest to her would be able to pick out. Her three eyelids opened wide and she raised her rounded spiked head and looked up at her rider sleepily. Astrid sighed and placed a hand on her dragon's head with a small smile.

"Don't worry, Toothless and Hiccup have just gone off for the day again. You can go back to sleep, Stormfly."  
>The Nadder in question leaned into her touch and the look in her eyes was almost questioning. Astrid allowed her smile to grow slightly. "I know, but I'm sure they'll be fine. They always are."<p>

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><p>Meanwhile, high in the sky, darting through clouds and yelling praises and the occasional 'WOOHOO!' Hiccup and Toothless had been thoroughly enjoying themselves. When the morning had well and truly broke, Hiccup decided that it was time to go under the cloud canopy to search for any undiscovered islands. The snow white of the clouds dispersed and became a neverending plain of navy, occasionally breached by the spiny dorsal fins from a pod of Seashockers. He could tell that they had already passed over the Isle of the Skullions and had ventured into unknown waters. The question was, how far out were they now?<p>

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><p>A lone giant trudged through a forest of impossibly tall trees grumbling to itself though its emerald eyes were watchful and its pointed ears perked, listening out for the slightest sound. It stopped for a moment and glanced about its surroundings before laying its large eyes on a single tree. It rolled its eyes and let out an exasperated roar before punching a hole in the trunk with a massive fist and turning on its heel and choosing another direction to walk in. Steam puffed from its mouth as it huffed in a frustrated manner. Five minutes later and it stood in a clearing with one hand on its hip and another scratching at the back of its head, ruffling its hair.<p>

_'Great. Just great. How could I get separated and lost so easily?' _Eren thought to himself, _'at this rate I'll be killed before anyone finds me.'_

On their latest expedition, the elites of the Scouting Legion had been ambushed by a group of Aberrant Titans. The new Squad Levi had been forced to retreat into the Forest of Giant Trees. Seeing no other way out of their predicament, Eren transformed against Corporal Levi's orders to combat the Aberrants, managing to stray from the group as he did so. He sighed and looked up, squinting as a ray of sunight that had managed to pierce the leafy canopy got in his eyes. About to continue on his way, a howling whistling sound that tore through the air caught his attention and was startled to find that it seemed to be coming increasingly louder very quickly. His eyes darted about, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise when the sound had escalated to a high-pitched screeching. Before he could do anything else something small collided with his lower jaw so hard and fast that it came clean off. Eren made an odd squeak of surprise and a low groan of pain, feeling around his bleeding mouth. Steam poured out like a waterfall but he was preoccupied with what had caused it in the first place. He saw a smoking pile of crumbled bone that used to be his jaw sitting in a crater and in it...was the most peculiar-looking creature he had ever seen.

Uncertain whether it was dead or alive, he took a cautious step forward and crouched down to get a better look at it. If he were in human form it would certainly be bigger than him. It was blacker than the night sky and covered in scales, with four clawed paws and a set of large bat-like wings. It also had a long, thin tail that had a wing-like flap on the end. Interestingly enough, there was a prosthetic flap on the other side of the tail that had a large hole in it attached to a...saddle?  
>Eren frowned and looked around. A saddle meant that there was a rider, and from the looks of it the rider had control of the prosthetic tail flap. Could the creature not fly without it? That had to be the case, Eren reasoned. But the real issue at hand was; where was the rider?<p>

First he checked on the ground, worried he might find a bloody mangled pulp instead of a recognisable human being but he could find nothing. He checked the trees and almost jumped when he thought he saw a giant (well it would have been if he were human) spider sitting in a tree but he calmed down when he realised it was just an extremely gangly person that had been tangled in the branches. Upon closer inspection he found that the person had long-ish messy auburn hair and was wearing a furry vest over a green shirt that looked almost exactly the same as Eren's. On one leg he wore a single Ugg boot but the other was made of metal. Eren's head tilted to the side and his eyes widened. The prosthetic was so intricately designed, but he had no time to admire it as the boy had raised his head, blinking in confusion. Eren leaned forwards, ears twitching as he picked up the boy's voice.

"T...Toothless...?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: ever since I've been writing my other fanfic, Shingeki no Kaiju (which I haven't abandoned if you're waiting for an update on that too, don't worry!) I have concluded that I really don't like writing language barriers so let's just imagine that they all speak the same language. Also I'll include a glossary at the beginning just incase if need be because who wants to wait until the end of a chapter to find out what a word means?**

**draugr- basically an old Norse version of a zombie.**

**Tyr's day- Old Norse coming from Tyrsdagr. It just means Tuesday.**

**And without further ado, I hope you enjoy chapter 2 of Meridian of Misery!**

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><p>"Hey look! A new island! Let's go take a closer look!"<p>

Toothless' eyes snapped down, locking onto the great grassy plains below him. He began gliding down, the pair marvelling at the sheer size of the island they'd come across. They couldn't even see the sea on the horizon anymore! Hiccup was too preoccupied to note down the island's location. They glided down lower and Hiccup could make out huge forests and mountains and eventually...a wall? "Woah." He breathed. Apparently Toothless agreed with him because he turned his head with his trademark grin. "Wanna check it out?" The dragon nodded and prepared to go into a dive, Hiccup adjusting the tail flap in perfect sync with the dragon's own one. Toothless pulled his wings in tight and the two shot down from the sky towards the giant white wall, wind whipping at their grinning faces. Toothless spread his wings mere seconds before colliding with the wall and pulled straight up. They flew straight over the wall and found that it was only a semi-circular segment poking out of a much larger wall.

Toothless let out a curious hum, stretching out his wings to glide at a steady pace as they flew over the structures. Hiccup could see a few villages with oddly shaped houses dotted about here and there, but was too far up to see any people. Or so he thought. He chuckled to himself. "Think we scared everyone off?"

They glided down low past a village and landed just on its outskirts. Hiccup hopped off but didn't move from his spot. Something inside of him was telling him to turn back now, that this whole thing was a bad idea.

On one hand, the houses in the village had a completely different design to the houses he was used to living in on Berk. On the other hand, many of the houses had been almost completely destroyed and there was no one to be seen. "Hello? Anyone here?" he called out. Toothless nudged his leg from behind. "What is it bud?"  
>Toothless' ear flaps were pressed against his head and he was making a low whining sound. If Toothless was feeling distressed, then something was seriously wrong. He put a hand on his snout and took one last look at the village before jumping back onto his Night Fury's back. "Yeah...I don't like it either. Let's go..." he murmured before taking off. Despite Toothless' protests, Hiccup steered him in the direction they had been going before. He convinced his dragon that they would leave if they could just fly as fast as they could over to the other side of the larger wall, then they would fly straight back home and not return unless they were with the others. They came upon yet another wall, and inside it, larger towns huddled closer together. Hiccup could just make out tiny specks of people going about their daily business. They flew over yet another set of walls when the young viking realised that there were actually only three walls and that they were all circular.<p>

Unfortunately for them, the cannons on top of the wall had recently been cleaned, and the Garrison were on watch today.

"Hey, what's that?"  
>"It's a flock of birds, idiot."<br>"No, THAT over there!"  
>"Woah...I don't know..."<br>"I-it looks like a giant bat..."  
>"That's no bat, that's a monster!"<br>"Well whatever it is, it's heading right for us! What should we do?!"  
>"Shoot it down before it lands! Hurry!"<p>

While they were flying over the smallest wall, something came to Hiccup's attention. The sun was glinting off of multiple somethings situated on top of the walls were a few dots of people were now crowding around and moving about. He narrowed his eyes to get a better look, realising too late what they were as a black ball was heading right towards them at a remarkable speed.

"Toothless! LOOK OUT!"

The Night Fury had dodged the cannonball easily before Hiccup had even finished his sentence but his tailflap got caught by another that had been just out of his eyesight. Toothless barked in shock and turned in the air, eyes widening when he saw his prosthetic tail flap had been damaged badly. "Oh Gods no...!" Hiccup breathed, tightening his grips on the reigns of the leather saddle as Toothless began to beat his wings furiously. "It's okay Toothless, just calm down! Everything's gonna be al-"

The next thing Hiccup knew, Toothless jolted beneath him and was forcefully pushed through the air by another cannonball, knocking the wind right out of him. The two went down, spiralling and spiralling, faster and faster further and further until everything went black.

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><p>When Hiccup first awoke, his view was obscured by two large emerald eyes.<p>

"T...Toothless...?" He mumbled tiredly, reaching out to give his friend a reassuring stroke to tell him that he was okay. It was only when his vision cleared that he froze in place, hand outstretched half-way towards what he had realised was _not _Toothless.

This thing certainly _did_ have teeth, and lots of them.

Its eyes were focused on Hiccup's tiny hand but then they flickered towards his face, making him suck his breath in through his teeth, pulling his hand back. The...creature, whatever it was, seemed to recognise it as a movement of fear and leaned backwards slightly, eyes not leaving Hiccup's once. Not knowing what else to do or how to deal with the thing before him, he said the first idea that came to his mind. "I-I erm, I'm sorry I don't have any food or anything" he started, shakily getting to his feet (well, foot) and pulling out his fur vest, turning to show he didn't have any edible substances on him, or weapons.

_'What? Doesn't he see what...I am?'_

He was surprised to find that the creature's head was tilted and shaking side to side. "You can understand me?" The boy asked. The creature nodded its head. It looked about as surprised to see the boy as he was to it. Had it not seen another human before?...No, he had to have learned how to understand speech at some point. Unless...were all people around here like this?

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a loud thudding, that was noticed by the giant too, as it had turned its head in the direction the noise was coming from. Its brow furrowed and it started growling as another giant stepped out from the trees, only this one was less muscular and was slightlly shorter than the one infront of him. It didn't seem to have as much intelligence as the black-haired one as it had a gormless expression and walked like a draugr. "One of your...friends?" he innocently asked though he knew the answer. The green-eyed giant looked down at him with a disgusted face and shook its head before turning back to the other giant with what Hiccup could only describe as pure hatred in its eyes.

The giant took another lumbering step forward before reaching out for the taller of the two before the latter grabbed its arms, putting a foot on its chest and...

_**RIIIIP**_

It tore the arms off and tossed them to the side, pushing down on the chest as the other giant fell. If the little viking hadn't felt like throwing up at this point he probably did after watching as the green-eyed giant's foot forcing its way through the ribcage of the giant below it, being followed by the other foot that instead went right through its throat. Oh, but it didn't stop there. It pulled its foot out slowly and sent it crashing down again and again, not stopping until steam enveloped the disintegrating corpse. Hiccup swallowed down his bile and edged a little closer to the trunk of the unusually large tree. _'Cmon now, I'm used to seeing gore and guts but this is just...weird' _he thought to himself. Giant naked people killing eachother was not exactly what he was used to seeing on a Tyr's day afternoon.

The giant placed its hands on the branch Hiccup was on, crossing them and resting its head on them. It looked Hiccup up and down, then tilted its head again. Hiccup cleared his throat and kept his hands glued to his sides. "Erm...I hope you don't mind me asking but...did you need to kill that guy so...brutally?"

The giant pulled back with a look of disbelief, making the boy think he had angered it somehow.

_'This guy...he really doesn't know anything about Them...'_

It pointed towards where the corpse was, then to Hiccup. Then he opened his mouth, revealing a pointed tongue and a jagged jawline. Hiccup thought he was about to speak but then he pointed down his throat then at his stomach.

"...Are you trying to tell me that...that thing was going to eat me?"

The giant nodded again. Had it just saved his life? "Are you the only one of...your kind that doesn't eat people?"

It nodded yet again. "Heh, so you're like a rogue giant then?" he joked, his smile growing at the sound of the giant's deep chuckle. He took a few steps forward and slowly reached out with his left hand, closing the gap between the two. The giant's eyes were wide with curiosity, reminding the viking a lot of his dragon.

Wait.

Toothless!

Almost as soon as he had the thought the giant's eyes widened before it pulled back away from the tree suddenly. It roared in pain and threw its hands behind its back over the back of its neck and span around clawing at its back to get rid of the big black dragon that was clawing and biting at it. "Toothless?! What are you doing?! Stop it! STOP IT!" He yelled, running to the edge of the branch and waving his hands about madly in the hopes of catching his dragon's attention. It was all in vain however as the two were roaring at eachother so loudly Hiccup was worried he'd go deaf.

Without a word of warning two flashes of silver attached to a green and red blur flew through the trees straight at the back of the giant's now-unprotected neck (as its hands were coming dangerously close to crushing Toothless, who was now clawing at its eyes) and flew right past it. The giant made a strangled gasp before toppling over, allowing Toothless to leap off the top of its head onto the branch where his rider was as it fell. Hiccup stared at its body where he noticed was a large cut in the nape of its neck where steam was now pouring out. It was dead. Toothless wrapped himself around his rider protectively and raised his wings. Hiccup was scanning the area, trying to find his saviour's killer.

He blinked and then he saw it again.

A flicker of silver from sunlight catching on the metal of a pair of swords cut straight through the clearing in front of them. They were going slower than they had been on the way through but Hiccup managed to get a better look at the stranger.

She had short ebony hair and was wearing a scarf the colour of fresh blood. Her arms and torso were obscured by a green cloak and on her legs were a pair of boxes with some sort of wire coming out of them. In both her hands she held an odd-looking sword but one arm held what looked like a faded green potato sack.

Toothless' teeth were bared at her as she flew past, her head turned towards the two. Hiccup couldn't make out her expression as she disappeared into the green abyss, holding onto her sack like her life depended on it.

He placed a hand on his dragon, still watching the spot where she had left incase she came back.

Toothless relaxed under the viking's hand and retracted his teeth. He looked up at Hiccup with a concerned expression who reassured him with a smile. "Thank Odin you're okay. You had me worried there bud!" Toothless grinned and licked the brunette's face happily, glad that he was unharmed. After rubbing the dragon saliva off his face, Hiccup put his hands on his hips and looked down at the steaming giant corpse. "Okay then buddy. What now?"


End file.
